RAIL TRANSIT ENERGY MANAGEMENT PROGRAM - UPDATE

The Rail Transit Energy Management Program is designed to reduce energy costs of U S Rail Transit Authorities by 10% or $45 million annually. The program is a partnership among rail transit authorities, the electric utilities who supply them power and suppliers to the electric utility and transit authorities. It has just finished its second year of operation. In addition to the organizational work, this year's effort concentrated on an evaluation of battery storage for rail transit as an energy cost reduction tool and the development of a Train Operation Model, which has energy, capacity and schedule performance as the major part of its output. Evaluation of battery storage on WMATA shows that it can reduce energy costs of the Red Line operation by increasing regeneration receptivity. The battery is connected directly to the third rail circuit without power conditioning equipment for such cost reduction to be effective. The basic TOM has been developed and must now be verified on a real transit system. It is compatible with Windows 95 and has been set up to take into account future developments in train control operation and strategies.